AUGUSTA — Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate, despite pressure from groups opposed to MaineCare cuts, passed a budget Tuesday that eliminates health care coverage for more than 20,000 people, cuts prescription drug coverage for senior citizens and reduces funding for Head Start.

PORTLAND — Representatives from The Nature Conservancy, the Forest Society of Maine and the Plum Creek timber company came together Tuesday to celebrate a new conservation easement that’s considered one of the largest ever in the United States.

BITE OUT OF CRIME: State Trooper Stephen Hills is nipped Tuesday by a police dog during law enforcement canine training in Vassalboro. Dogs and their police handlers were practiced tracking and apprehending suspects.

AUGUSTA — Trustees of a Fairfield union’s trust fund say that an administrator who died in a car accident earlier this year had stolen more than $260,000 to cover up a theft from an Augusta union’s trust fund.

FAIRFIELD — Maine State Police divers returned to Martin Stream on Tuesday to search for the Skowhegan woman missing since her car plunged into the water adjacent to U.S. Route 201 on Saturday night.